



eHieAeo.u.s.A. 




PERRY'S VICTORY ON LAKE ERIE, 1812. 
Taken from "The Discovery and Conquest of the Northwest," Etc. 




(^a//^ ^M^lcAai-i^/ 



DOCUMENTARY HISTORY 



OF THE CESSION OF 



LOUISIANA 



TO THE 



United States 



TILL IT BECAME AN 



AMERICAN PROVINCE 



WITH AN APPENDIX 
BY 

RUFUS BLANCHARD 

AUTHOR OF 

DISCOVERY AND CONQUESTS OF THE NORTHWEST," ETC. 



CHICAGO : 

R. BLANCHARD 

1903 



THE LIBRARY OF 
■ CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

JUN IS 1903 

Copyrignt Entry 

cIaSS Ct- XXc. No 

Ic f i^ 
COPY B, 



Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1903, by Eufus Blanchakd,. 
in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 






^ 



PRESS OF 

STROMBERG, ALLEN & CO. 

CHICAGO. 

951S9 



DEDICATION 



Emile Loubet, President of France: 

It seems appropriate that at the Centennial Celebration at 
St. Louis of the French cession of Louisiana to the United 
States our national reminiscences of such _pleasant memory 
should not be lost sight of. 

Ever since the treaty of alliance between France and the 
United States in 1//8 there has been an uninterrupted friend- 
ship betzveen the Government and the people of both coun- 
tries^ respectively, and to you, the Representative of the French 
people, I dedicate this ivork, with a confidence that by so doing 
I represent the sentiment of the American people, zvhich is, 
universally, friendly to France. I sign myself, with great 

RESPECT, 

Yours fraternally in behalf of the American people, 

RUFUS BLANCHARD. 



MEDAL 



TO COMMEMORATE THE TRIUMPH OF AMERICAN INDEPEND- 
ENCE STRUCK BY THE FRENCH GOVERN- 
MENT, 1783. 



Device — Head of Liberty; the hair blown back as if by 
the wind, against which the goddess seems to be running to 
announce to the world the tidings of her victories. On the 
right shoulder she hears u liberty cap. 

Legend : "Libertas Americana, 4 Juil., 1776." 
Reverse — Pallas holding in her left hand a shield, on 
which are three fleurs de lis (the arms of France) ; opposite to 
her is a leopard (England) in the act of springing, into zvhose 
breast she is about to plunge a barbed javelin that she holds 
in. her dexter hand. Beneath the shield is an infant strangling 
zvith one hand a serpent, zvhich he is holding up, whilst lie 
stoops and chokes another found at his feet. 




Legend : "Non sine Diis Animosus Infans." 

Exergue 
17th Oct., 1777. 
ipth Oct., 1 78 1. 

Hercules, according to Grecian mythology, was said to 
have strangled zvhilst in his cradle tzuo serpents zvhich had as- 
saulted him, having been assisted by the protection of the god- 
dess Pallas. Infant America, like Hercules in his cradle, had 
destroyed tzuo British arnnes. The two epochs of those ex- 
ploits are marked in the exergue, 17th Oct., 1777. Bur- 
goyne's surrender at Saratoga; ipth Oct., 1781, Cornzuallis' 
surrender at Yorktozvn, Va. The motto is from Horace, 
Ode 4, Book HI, v. 20. 

This medal is nozv in the Warden collection of the Nezv 
York State Library. 

6 



INTRODUCTION 



At a time when the political conditions of Europe and 
America were evanescent, when the heart of the American 
Continent was in the germ cell, then fortuitous circumstances 
came up unexpectedly to decide an issue that involved the 
destinies of the United States, and the men capable of giving 
directions to these political issues were brought into the arena 
to solve them. Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declara^ 
tion of the Independence of the United States, and Napoleon 
Bonaparte, the supreme ruler of France, were the tiuo great 
actors for their countries respectively. 

Robert Livingston, who had been one of the committee 
to formidate the Declaration of American Independence, and 
James Monroe, destined to a zvorld wide fame as the author 
of the Monroe doctrine, were the actors under Jefferson on 
the part of the United States, and Barbe Marbois, a great and 
farseeing statesman, on the part of France. In the following 
pages the immense work which these remarkable men accom- 
plished will be told as briefly and plainly as the facts can be 
stated without omitting any link in its chain. To this end 
much pains has been taken to obtain official records, and here 
it is but just that I acknozvledge obligations to Henry Vig- 
naud, Secretary to Hon. Horace Porter, our present Ambassa- 
dor Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to France, for search- 
ing among the archives of a hundred years back to secure for 
me a fac simile of the autograph of Marbois, taken directly 
from the original treaty. 

The appendix of this work contains a brief outline history 
of the American acquisition of Oregon, mude possible by the 
purchase of Louisiana; also the history of other foreign ac- 
quisitions to the United States since that time. 

RUFUS BLANCHARD. 
Chicago, June, ipo^. 



LOUISIANA 



France was the first owner of the Mississippi valley. She 
became vested in its title by priority of discovery and explora- 
tion by La Salle, in 1682; who navigated the Mississippi to 
its mouth, naming it Louisiana in honor of his sovereign, the 
King of France. This immense domain included the valley of 
the Ohio river and all its tributaries ; as well as the Missouri, 
Arkansas and Red river valleys, and their tributaries, extend- 
ing to the western water shed of the Pacific Coast. 

Spain had already settled East Florida in 1565 at St. 
Augustine; hence the Spanish title to Florida rested on the 
basis of priority. Immediately adjoining this settlement on 
the north was the Georgia Colony, settled by Gov. Oglethorpe 
in 1732. This colony included the present state of Alabama, 
the southwestern point of which extended to the Gulf of 
Mexico. Spain also owned Mexico as a result of its con- 
quest by Cortez, in 1521, the northern boundary of which 
was indefinite. The English owned a narrow strip of 
land along the Atlantic Coast, where they had first settled 
at Jamestown, in 1607, and at Plymouth, in 1620, and a few 
years later on this coast, her thirteen colonies were laying 
the foundation of a great nation — a nation whose power was 
not then foreseen. France then had a foothold on the St. 
Lawrence river. Each of these peoples, the English and the 
French, had a laudable ambition to extend their settlements 
to the west, which, as a consequence, produced a rivalry be- 
tween them which ultimated in the French and Indian war, 
begun in 1755. Before hostilities commenced a compromise 
was attempted, and January, 1755, opened with peace pro- 



10 Louisicina 

posals from France, by which she offered, as an ultimatum, 
that the French should retire west of the Ohi^), -and the Eng- 
lish east of the Alleghenies. 

Tliis offer was considered by England till the 7th of 
March, when -she agreed tO' accept it on condition that the 
French would destroy all their forts on the Ohio river and its 
branches. The French, after twenty days, refused to do 
this.* But while the fruitless negotiations were pending, both 
sides were sending soldiers to America. 

The issue involved in the French and Indian war inter- 
ested every nation in Europe, no one of which wished to see 
either of the participants in it secure too much of the terri- 
tory in dispute, lest the victor should become sufficiently pow- 
erful as a European nation to destroy its equilibrium. France 
had positive purposes at which she aimed, the chief one of 
which was to preserve her American possessions, and the 
means to be used in the achievement of this end were definitely 
settled upon, which, in brief, were to attack the allies of Eng- 
land on the Continent, by which diversion New France in 
America was to be made invulnerable against her rival, whose 
strength must be largely occupied on the defensive at home. 

The ultimatum of England was not less clearly defined 
than that of France, but the means by which it was to be 
brought about were more complicated. The tenacity with 
which the American colonists had clung to their political rights 
at the Albany convention of 1754, as well as the able states- 
manship of the Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania 
Assemblies, not always in harmony with the crown, had awak- 
ened a sense of caution in the English court, in their dealings 
with their trans-Atlantic children, and the question came to 
the surface whether it was better to drive France entirely out 

of America, or allow her to retain enough there to become a 
''■Plain Facts, p. 52. 



Louisiana 11 

rival to the English colonists, and thereby insure their loyalty 
through their obligations for assistance in defending them- 
selves from the French. King George II. shared these appre- 
hensions, while William Pitt had always been .in favor of 
pushing the war in America without fear of adverse conse- 
quences. 

' England and Russia had long been friends, and, as soon 
as war with France appeared inevitable, she made a treaty, 
with the empress of Russia, by the condition of which Han- 
over (England's ally) was to be protected by Russian troops 
in the event of a European war, for which service England 
was to pay her. This treaty bore date of September 13th, 
1755. A few months later both France and Prussia mani- 
fested dispositions to invade portions of Germany, the French 
incentive to which was to keep England busy at home, while 
she (France) made her American possessions secure, as al- 
ready stated. 

Russia was now alarmed lest she might be attacked by 
Prussia, and, conscious of.her inability to fulfill her treaty 
stipulations with England, as to the protection of Hanover, 
she applied to France for the preservation of the neutrality of 
that electorate. 

These accumulating evtdences of the rising power of 
Frederick stimulated England to make an alliance with him, 
which was done January 1 6th, 1756, although by this treaty 
the interests of Russia, as well as those of Hanover, were left 
unprotected.* The effect was to unite the interests of Russia 
with France, and also those of Austria with the same power, 
although the two had long been enemies. 

All this plotting and counter-plotting, which by a para- 
doxical combination, transposed the friendships and enmities 
of the great powers of Europe, grew out of the issue between 

*Smollet's History of England, vol. 4, p. 178. 



12 Louisiana 

England and France, as to which should take possession of the 
tipper Ohio country, although the fortunes of war ultimately 
brought into question the patent to the title of Canada itself. 

It began in a land speculation of the Ohio company, whose 
regal title to lands on the Ohio river was not honored by the 
French Court. The issue broaidened as the war progressed, 
and after it closed, a new theater, unexpectedly, opened before 
the world, that justified the arming of Europe to take a hand 
in its settlement. 

The sequel proved that the fears of George II., King of 
England, were not without foundation. It has also proved, 
that if the policy of Pitt, the world's greatest statesman at 
that time, did not advance the interests of England, it was ele- 
mentary to the birth of a new nation, not less powerful. The 
American Revolution was the result. It terminated in the 
definitive treaty of peace held at Paris, September 3rd, 1783. 
To the consummation of this i treaty, America owes a lasting 
debt of gratitude to France for her aid in the American Revo- 
lution. The French Revolution of 1789 was one of the 
momentous results of the American Revolution. Napoleon 
Bonaparte came into power, when the revolutionary spirit in 
France, though burnt out like a spent volcano, had left the 
vital forces of that country unimpaired. He commenced his 
rule in France, in May, 1802, under title of First Consul. 

In 1 76 1 a treaty had been concluded between France and 
Spain called a "Family Compact," by the i8th article of wliich 
either power was obligated to indemnify the other power for 
any loss it sustained by conquest. Each of these nations was 
governed by a Bourbon King. This compact was in full force 
during the various transfers of the province of Louisiana, 
previous to its sale to the United States, in 1803. This sale 
by the French Republic was the first act on the part of France 
that was not in harmony with the spirit of this compact. The 



Louisiana 13. 

relations between the United States, France, Spain and Eng- 
land were in a very critical condition. Both the American 
and the French Revolutions had brought new issues to the 
great nations of the world. America in the plenitude of her 
rising power in the western continent, had now become a fac- 
tor in the deliberations between France, England and Spain. 
Spain on the ist of October, 1800, concluded a treaty at San 
Ildefonso with France, by which, she retroceded to the latter 
power the entire province of Louisiana, which province had 
been ceded by France to Spain in 1763. No limits had ever 
been set to Louisiana, on the west, except general geographical 
limits by water sheds; but on the north, by the treaty of 
Utrecht, the forty-ninth parallel had been considered the north- 
ern boundary, and this line had not been disputed by any na- 
tion. But the limits of Louisiana on the east by the treaty of 
1783, between Great Britain and the United States, had been 
fixed on the Mississippi river as far south as the thirty-first 
parallel; which parallel eastwardly to the Perdido river was 
the southern boundary of the United States as far as it went, 
and the United States never claimed any territory south of 
this parallel until by the treaty with Spain in 1819, Florida 
was ceded by her to the United States for a consideration of 
$5,000,000. 

France and England being at war at the time of the San 
Ildefonso treaty, the retrocession of Louisiana to France by 
that treaty was not made public, and Bonaparte was careful 
not to divulge it by taking possession of the province lest it 
might be attacked by England, whose navy was far superior 
to that of France. The rising power of Napoleon had made 
the nations of Europe anxious to make peace with the French, 
and England, with the rest, felt the necessity of doing the same 
thing. To this end she concluded a treaty with France October 
1st, 1 80 1, which was called the treaty of Amiens. Had Eng- 




First Printed in McClure's Magazine. 




Louisiana 15 

land known of the treaty of San Ildefonso, it is probable she 
never would have signed the treaty of Amiens, at least until 
she had by means of her fleet taken New Orleans from the 
French, in which event the whole province of Louisiana would 
have become English territory. The ambition of France to 
again possess the west bank of the Mississippi river was made 
manifest by the treaty of San Ildefonso, and Napoleon, in- 
spired by this ambition, looked forward to an important ac- 
cession of power for France in this restoration of French ter- 
ritory. To the same end his attempt tO' make the conquest of 
Santo Domingo was made. This attempt, owing to the stub- 
born courage of the celebrated Toussaint L'Ouverture, who 
had been bred a slave, miscarried. Meantime, the English 
began to be jealous of the power of France. They feared that 
the reintroduction of French power in America might en- 
danger the safety of Canada itself, and the celebrated Lord 
Hawkesbury declared, "that the treaty of Amiens was only 
experimental on the part of England," which declaration 
was equivalent to an acknowledgment that a subtle treachery 
underlay the peaceful professions of England in the signing 
of this treaty. 

All this time Napoleon had his fingers on the pulse of 
Europe, and during these palmy days of peace took measures 
to colonize New Orleans with French colonies, and others 
favorable to his designs. Here we will leave him in his happy 
reveries, till the irresistible current of events awakened him 
from has illusions. 

On the accession of Thomas Jefferson to the presidency 
of the United States, in 1801, he appointed Robert R. Living- 
ston as Minister to France. Mr. Livingston was one of the 
ablest statesmen of that period, and it is fortunate for the 
United States that a man of such ability represented its inter- 
ests at the French Court. 



16 Louisiana 

At the Treaty of Peace between England and United 
States, in 1783, Spain had protested against the Mississippi 
river as the western boundary of the new nation ; declaring that 
the United States should be limited on the west by the Alle- 
gheny Mountains. Later, when American settlements extended 
to the west, so as to require a highw;ay to the ocean, by way of 
the Mississippi river, to market their produce, she erected forts 
on its east bank, and persisted in retaining these forts, one at 
Natchez, and the other at Walnut Hills. This unfriendly at- 
titude of Spain affected the interests of the western states to 
such an extent that it was difficult to keep them from march- 
ing an army to take possession of New Orleans, in order to 
obtain what they declared to be their natural rights, namely, 
to use the Mississippi as a great highway to the sea. This 
state of things grew worse, till Jay's treaty of 1795, in which 
Spain conceded the right of deposit at New Orleans; which 
temporarily modified the situation. But this treaty even if 
made in good faith on the part of Spain, could not have per- 
manently settled the real issues at stake between the two coun- 
tries. The treaty, however, was not lived up to by Spain and 
old scores were opened up afresh. 

January 7th, 1803, the House of Representatives took ac- 
tion on this matter, as follows : 

"Resolved, That this house receive with great sensibility 
the information of a disposition in certain officers of the Span- 
ish government at New Orleans to obstruct the navigation of 
the River Mississippi, as secured to the United States by the 
most solemn stipulations : 

"Tliat adhering to that humane and wise policy which 
ought ever to characterize a free people, and by which the 
United States have always professed to be governed; willing 
at the same time to ascribe this breach of compact to the un- 
authorized misconduct of certain individuals, rather than to 



Louisiana 17 

a want o-f good faith on the part of his Catholic Majesty; and 
relying with perfect confidence on the vigilance and wisdom 
of the Executive, they will wait the issue of such measures as 
that department of the government shall have pursued for 
asserting the rights and vindicating the injuries of the United 
States^ — ^holding it tO' be their duty, at the same time, to ex- 
press their unalterable determination to maintain the boun- 
daries and the rights of navigation and commerce through the 
River Mississippi, as established by existing treaties." 

January loth, 1803, James Monroe was appointed by 
President Jefferson to act with Mr. Livingston in the delicate 
and uncertain negotiations with France for the purchase of 
Louisiana. The following letters to Mr. Monroe show his con- 
fidence in him tO' execute the important commission required 
of him : 

"Washington, January loth, 1803. 
"Governor Monroe: 

"Dear Sir : I have but a moment to inform you that the 
fever into which the western mind is thrown by the affair at 
New Orleans, stimulated by the mercantile and generally the 
federal interest, threatens to overbear our peace. In this situ- 
ation we are obliged to call on you for a temporary sacrifice of 
yourself to prevent this greatest of evils in the present pros- 
perous tide of our affairs. I shall to-morrow nominate you 
to the Senate, for an extraordinary mission to France, and the 
circumstances are such as to render it impossible to decline; 
because the whole public hope will be rested on you. I wish 
you to be either in Richmond or Albemarle till you receive 
another letter from me, which will be within ts^o days hence, 
if the Senate decide immediately; or later, according to the 
time they take to decide. In the meantime, pray work night 
and day, tO' arrange your affairs for a temporary absence^ — 
perhaps for a long one. Accept affectionate salutations. 

"Thomas Jefferson. "" 



18 Louisiana 

"Washington^ January 13th, 1803. 
"Governor Monroe: 

"Dear Sir: I dropped yon a line on the loth, informing 
you of a nomination I had made of you to the Senate, and 
yesterday I enclosed you their approbation, not having then 
time to write. The agitation of the public mind on occasion 
of the late suspension of our right of deposit at New Orleans is 
extreme. This, in the western country, is natural, and 
grounded on operative motives. Remonstrances, memorials, 
etc., are now circulating through the whole of that country, 
and signing by the body of the people. The measures which 
we have been pursuing, being invisible, do not satisfy their 
minds; something sensible, therefore, has become necessary, 
and indeed our object of purchasing New Orleans and the 
Floridas is a measure likely to assume so many shapes that no 
instructions could be squared to fit them. It was essential, 
then, to send a minister extraordinary to be joined with the 
ordinary one, with discretionary power, first, however, well 
impressed with all our views, and therefore cjualified to meet 
and modify to these every form of proposition which could 
come from the other party. This could be done only in fre- 
quent and full oral communication. Having determined on 
this, there could not be two opinions as to the person. You 
possessed the unlimited confidence of the administration and 
of the western people, and were you to refuse to go, no other 
man can be found who does this. All eyes are fixed on you ; 
and were you tO' decline, the chagrin would be great, and 
would shake under your feet the high ground on which you 
stand with the public. Indeed, I know nothing which would 
produce such a shock ; for on the event of this mission depends 
the future destinies of this republic. If we cannot, by a pur- 
chase of the country, ensure to ourselves a course of perpetual 
peace and friendship with all nations, then, as war cannot be 



Louisiana 19 

far distant, it behooves us immediately to be preparing for 
that course, without, however, hastening it; and it may be 
necessary (on your failure on the continent) to cross the 
channel. We shall get entangled in European politics, and 
figuring more, be much less happy and prosperous. This 
can only be prevented by a successful issue to your present 
mission. I am sensible, after the measures you have taken for 
getting intO' a different line of business, that it will be a great 
sacrifice on your part ; and presents, from the season a,nd other 
circumstances, serious difficulties. But some men are born for 
the public. Nature, by fitting them for the service of the hu- 
man race on .a broad scale, has stamped them with the evi- 
dences of her destination and their duty. 

"Thomas Jefferson." 

Mr. Monroe accepted the appointment of President Jeffer- 
son and immediately made preparations to sail for Paris. 

Meanwhile, Napoleon, now fully aware of the uncertainty 
w4th which the peace of Amiens held England in check, was 
ready to open negotiations with Livingston and Monroe, for 
the purchase of Louisiana. This conviction had been forced 
upon him by the action of a party in England that had sworn 
implacable hatred to France. On March 8, 1803, the King 
of England sent a message to the two Houses of Parliament, 
in which he gave intimation of an approaching rupture. Soon 
after England made a call for io,ocxd seamen. M. Talleyrand 
and the French Minister now threw off all disguise and 
acknowledged to the British Minister that the embarkation of 
troops, destined for America, had been countermanded in con- 
sequence of the action of the English Court. The critical 
situation between France and England was discussed in a 
private conference in the Tuileries, in which discussion Napo- 
leon took a prominent part. He said to his counselors : "The 



Louisiana 21 

principles of maritime supremacy are subversive of one of the 
noblest rights that nature, science and genius have secured to 
man. I mean the right of traveling every sea with as much 
liberty as the bird flies through the air; of making use of the 
waves, winds, climates and productions of the globe ; of bring- 
ing near to one another by a bold navigation, nations that have 
been separated since the creation; of carrying civilizatTbn into 
regions that are a prey to ignorance and barbarism. This is 
what England would usurp over all other nations." Here, the 
English Minister asked him if the English had not the 
same motive for dreading a. continental supremacy as the 
French? Continuing, he said, "France obliges us to- recollect 
the injury which she did us twenty-five years since, by form- 
ing an alliance with our revolted colonies. Jealous of our 
commerce, navigation and riches, she wishes to annihilate 
them." After this English retort. Napoleon said to his ad- 
visers, "Propose your theories and your abstract propositions, 
and see if they can resist the efforts of the usurpers of the 
sovereignty of the sea. Leave commerce and navigation in 
the exclusive possession of a single people, and the globe will 
be subjugated by their arms, and the gold which occupies the 
place of armies. "~) Napoleon then for the first time announced 
his policy to be pursued respecting the United States. He said, 
rTo emancipate nations from the commercial tyranny of Eng- 
land, it is necessary to balance her influence by a maritime 
power that may one day become her rival ; that power is the 
United States. The English aspire to dispose of all the riches 
of the world. I shall be useful to the whole universe, if I 
can prevent their ruling America as they rule Asia."") The 
English people were pronounced through the Englis'h press 
against the policy of Napoleon. Both nations under the re- 
sentful influence of these recriminations began to make pre- 
parations for war which might result from the breaking of 
the peace of Amiens. 



22 Louisiana 

April lo, 1803, after having attended the solemnities 
of Easter services, Napoleon called together his two principal 
ministers, and declared to them in plain terms his determina- 
tion to cede Louisiana to the United States, and after a long 
rehearsal of the political conditions of England and France, 
he said : "Irresolution and deliberation are no longer in sea- 
son. I renounce Louisiana. It is not only New Orleans that 
I will cede, it is the whole colony without any reservation. 
^' * * I renounce it with the greatest regret. * * * 
I direct you to negotiate this affair with the envoys of the 
United States. Do not await the arrival of Mr. Monroe, but 
have an interview this very day w'jth Mr. Livingston." The 
plenipotentiary then by way of getting further instructions 
asked of Bonaparte, whether tlie rights of sovereignty were 
to be considered in the cession, to which Bonaparte replied, 
"You are giving me in all its perfection the ideology of the 
laws of nature and nations ; but I require money to make war 
on the richest nation in the world. Send your maxims to 
London. I am sure they will be greatly admired there; and 
yet, no great attention is paid to them when the question is 
the occupation of the finest regions of Asia. Perhaps it will 
also be objected to me that the Americans may be found too 
powerful for Europe in two or three centuries; but my fore- 
sight does not embrace such remote fears. Besides, we may 
hereafter expect to bear of rivalries among the members of 
that union. The confederations that are called perpetual only 
last till one of the contracting parties finds it to his interest 
to break them,* and it is to prevent the danger to which the 
colossal power of England exposes us that I will provide a 
remedy." Napoleon was fully aware that the cabinet at 
Washington did not know of his willingness to sell the whole 

*This prophecy was fulfilled when the Rebellion of the Southern States 
came in 1861. 



24 Louisiana 

province of Louisiana, and he seemed to be well awiare that 
Mr. Monroe must have secret instructions from his govern- 
ment, and authority to use his own discretion, as to unexpected 
points that might arise in the course of the negotiations. In 
this premise Napoleon had a just conception of the entire case 
at issue. 

The conferences between Mr. Livingston and M. Barbe 
Marbois, to whom Napoleon had confided the negotiations, be- 
gan immediately; but Mr. Livingston had not received his in- 
structions — naturally cautious, he became suspicious that the 
pretension to cede Louisiana to the United States was an artifice 
to lull his country into an ill founded security, while the French 
were making preparations to defend Louisiana. It was too 
good to be true, as he thought, when M. Marbois made a propo- 
sition to- him for a cession of the whole province. At the be- 
ginning of these preliminary discussions, news came that Mr. 
Monroe had arrived at Havre, when Mr. Livingston at once 
wrote him the following letter: 

"Paris, April lo, 1803. 
"Dear Sir : I congratulate you on your safe arrival. We 
have long and anxiously wished for you. God grant that your 
mission may answer yours and the public expectation. War 
may do something for us ; nothing else would. I have paved 
the way for you, and if you could add to my memoirs an as- 
surance that we were now in possession of New Orleans, we 
should do well. * * * j have apprised the minister of 
your arrival, and told him you would be here on Tuesday or 
Wednesday. Present my compliments and Mrs. L.'s to Mrs. 
Monroe, and believe me, dear sir, 

"Your friend and humble servant, 

"Robert R. Livingston. 
"To his Excellency James Monroe." 



Louisiana 25 

f 

\ Mr. Monroe arrived in Paris on the 12th of April and im- 
mediately held a conference with his colleague Mr. Living- 
ston, finding him still anxious with doubt and' misgiving. 
These two distinguished men enjoyed a mutual friendship 
and confidence perfected by years of labor in one common 
cause, the Independence of the United States. Mr. Monroe's 
arrival at Paris had aroused the suspicions of the English 
Ambassador, althoug^h the object of his arrival could not 
positively be known at London until the resolutions of the 
American Congress became public. 

M. Marbois had been much interested in American Inde- 
pendence, having resided in Philadelphia during the progres- 
sive steps that brought it about, assisting the cause by every 
means in his power, in doing which he acted on the principles 
of the Treaty of Alliance of 1778, between United States and 
France. Both Mr. Livingston and Mr. Monroe were well ac- 
quainted with him. Here we behold three negotiators acting 
together tO' bring about one of the most important treaties 
that the United States ever entered into with a foreign power, 
with the single exception of the treaty of 1783, at Paris, which 
sheathed the sword of the American Revolution. M. de Mar- 
bois opened these negotiations by proposing to cede the en- 
tire TERRITORY TO THE UNITED StatesJ instead of the territory 
south of the parallel of 31 degrees which contained New Or- 
leans, the latter being all that Mr. Jefferson had expected ; and 
even the cession of that had been considered a matter of great 
uncertainty. This offer on the part of M. de Marbois was a 
most agreeable surprise to the American negotiators. As 
the deliberations were continued, all doubts as to the good 
faith of Napoleon in this transaction vanished. While Mar- 
bois' proposition broadened the arena in which the American 
negotiators were unexpectedly to act, a new perplexity was 
thrust upon them. It was impossible for them to get farther 




/^^^Z^cr^T^--^ ^^^ 



Louisiana 2T 

instructions from their government, while it was necessary to 
act promptly, as delay might defeat their whole plan. The 
Treaty of Amiens might be broken at any day by England, in 
which case an English fleet might sail up the Mississippi river, 
take New^ Orleans, and thereby secure Louisiana to- the British 
Crown, against which attack the Americans were defenseless. 
Spain was still in possession of New Orleans. The Treaty 
by which she had ceded it to France two years before being a 
secret Treaty, a formal transfer of this territory from Spain 
to France had never been made, the better to preserve this 
secrecy. Meantime the American negotiators were well aware 
that inasmuch as Spain might protest against the transfer of it 
to France by the United States, it was quite possible that Spain 
might refuse to surrender the territory in question to the United 
States. In this exigency the American negotiators took upon 
themselves responsibilities unknown and unpracticed by pleni- 
potentiaries acting for their government. Nothing definite 
as to the western limits of Louisiana could be arrived at, but 
the negotiators on each side agreed to leave such limits to be 
decided in the future, using only the general expressions, that 
the boundaries of the province should be the same as existed 
in former transfers between Spain and France. The great 
issue at stake, and points to be settled, were harmoniously 
made by the negotiators on both sides, without providing for 
incidents that might arise in the practical fulfillment of the 
Treaty, and April 30, 1803, each of them signed it with 
a genuine feeling of good fellowship towards each other, as 
well as with a consciousness that they had served the best in- 
terests of the two- nations which they represented. This done, 
they all arose and shook hands, when Mr. Livingston said : 
"We have lived long, but this is the noblest work of our whole 
lives. The treaty which we have just signed has not been ob- 
tained by art or dictated by force ; equally advantageous to the 



Louisiana 29 

two contracting parties, it will change vast solitudes into flour- 
ishing districts. From this day the United States take their 
place among the powers of the first rank. The English lose 
all exclusive influence in the affairs of America. * * * 
But if wars are inevitable, France will hereafter have in the 
New World, a natural friend." The English Government did 
not suspect that a cession of the United States had been made ; 
and they did not know that Spain had ceded Louisiana to the 
French two years before, owing to the well kept secrecy as to 
the terms of the treaty of San Ildefonso. Four days after the 
signing of the Louisiana Treaty, Napoleon made a demand 
upon the British Government that the Independence of the 
Island of Malta should be guaranteed by Austria, Russia and 
PiTissia, the allies of England ; an issue which had been pend- 
ing between France and England a long time. 'Tf this pro- 
posal is rejected," said Bonaparte, "it is manifest that England 
has never wished to^ execute the Treaty of Amiens." On the 
22nd of May, less than a month after the signing of the 
Treaty, England commenced hostilities by the capture of some 
French merchantmen. On the same day Bonaparte ratified 
the Louisiana Treaty of Cession, as it was important that this 
formality should take place on the part of France, in order to 
leave no ground for considering Louisiana as still French. 
When the English Ministers had been informed of the object 
of Mr. Monroe's mission (previous to the publication of the 
treaty) , they made a proposition to Rufus King, the American 
Envoy at London, to the effect that they take the province of 
Louisiana with the concurrence of the United States, in which 
case Mr. King was given to understand that if his government 
gave its consent to this design the province should be retro- 
ceded to the United States after having been taken from 
France. Of course, such a proposition was rejected, nor was 
it necessary to state the reason why. Soon after this the 



30 Louisiana 

British Government were officially informed by the United 
States of the ceding of Louisiana iDy treaty, when Lord 
Hawkesbury gave a satisfactory answer respecting the ces- 
sion. The treaties were forwarded to Washington for ratifica- 
tion, arriving there July 4, 1803. M. Pichon, the charge 
d'affaires of France, had orders to transmit them tO' M. Laus- 
sat, the prefect of the Province of Louisiana. Meantime the 
Spanish Minister at Washington stated that he had orders 
from his government to warn the United States against the 
ratification of the treaties, on the ground that France had con- 
tracted an engagement with Spain not to cede it to any other 
power without the consent of Spain. 

Pending these attempts on the part of Spanish officials to 
prevent the consummation of the treaty. President Jefiferson 
■called an extra session of Congress, which was opened on the 
17th Oif October. Measures were immediately taken to justify 
and carry into effect the treaty, but not without some opposi- 
tion. No provision had ever been made by the Constitution 
•of the United States for accession of territory, notwithstand- 
ing which the Senate approved the treaties by a vote of 24 
against 7. President Jefferson ratified the treaty October 21, 
1803. The House of Representatives, after some opposition, 
concurred. This prompt and hasty action of President Jeffer- 
son was not consistent with his intense democratic convictions. 
But the end justified the means. Imperialism could hardly 
have taken a greater responsibility than President Jefferson 
was obliged to take for the general welfare of the nation, and 
any opposition that either England or Spain could make would 
have caused a war with the United States, a result which 
neither of these powers dared to face in the unsettled condi- 
tion of Europe at that time. 

This firm action on the part of the American Congress 
had its effect upon Spain, who did not dare to take the respon- 



Louisiana 31 

sibility of arousing the war sentiment of Europe. Accord- 
ingly, a few months later, the King of Spain instructed his 
Minister as follows : 

^'Extract from a Letter Written by Don Pedro Deval- 
Los^ Minister of State of His Catholick Majesty, 
TO Charles Pinckney, Esq., Dated at the Prado, 
February io, 1804. 

"At the same time that the Minister of His Majesty in 
the United States is charged tO' inform the American Gov- 
ernment respecting the falsity of the rumour referred to, he 
has likewise orders to renounce his opposition to- the alienation 
of Louisiana, made by France, notwithstanding the solid 
reasons on which it is founded ; thereby giving a new proof of 
his benevolence and friendship towards the United States." 

"Copy of a Letter from the Marquis of Casa Yrujo to 
THE Secretary of State. 

"Sir : The explanation which the Government of 
France has given to His Catholick Majesty concerning the 
sale of Louisiana to the United States, and the amicable dis- 
position on the part of the King my master toward these 
States, have determined him to abandon the opposition, which 
at a prior period, and with the most substantial motives, he 
had manifested against that transaction. In consequence and 
by special order of His Majesty I have the pleasure to com- 
municate to you his royal intentions on an affair so important ; 
well persuaded that the American Government will see, in 
this conduct of the King my master, a new proof of his con- 
sideration for the United States, and that they will corre- 
spond with a true reciprocity, with the sincere friendship of 
the King, of which he has given so many proofs. 

"God preserve you many years. 

"Philadelphia, 15th May, 1804. 

"To James Madison, Esq.'' 



32 Louisiana 

President Jefferson and the two Houses of Congress 
now ordered that the laws of the United States should be 
proclaimed and executed in the ceded province of Louisi- 
ana. Before this could be done it was necessary that Spain 
should formally cede the province to France, and that 
France in turn should cede the same to the United States. 
On the 30th of November, M. Laussat, commissioner of the 
French Government, at New Orleans, announced a proclama- 
tion to the Louisianians, as follows : "The approach of a 
war which threatens the four quarters of the world has given 
a new direction to the beneficent views of France towards 
Louisiana. She has ceded it to the United States of America. 
The treaty secures to you all the advantages and immunities 
of citizens of the United States. >k * * May a Louisian- 
ian and a Frenchman never meet now or hereafter in any part 
of the world, without feeling sentiments of affection, and with- 
out being mutually disposed to call one another brothers." 
On the same day the Spanish troops and militia were drawn up 
in front of the City Hall in New Orleans. The French and 
Spanish commissioners came to the place, followed by a pro- 
cession of the citizens of their respective nations. Three chairs 
were arranged in the Council Chamber, the Spanish Minister 
occupying the middle one, when the French Minister presented 
to him the decree of October 15, 1802, by which the King 
of Spain ordered his representative to deliver the colony to 
the French plenipotentiary. Next the French Minister pro- 
duced the authority of Napoleon to take possession of the 
country in the name of the French people. After these for- 
malities the Spanish Governor, leaving his seat, delivered to 
the French commissioner the keys of the city. The citizens of 
Louisiana, who wished to remain in the province, were then 
absolved from their oath of fidelity to the Spanish King. A 
signal was then given by the firing of cannon, Avhen the Span- 



Louisiana 33 

ish colors were lowered and the French hoisted. The French 
sovereignty lasted from the 30th of November to the 20th of 
December. This change of nationality and government was not 
well understood, especially in the rural districts along the river, 
and it was only by action on the part of M. Laussat, the French 
Governor, that anarchy was prevented. The United States 
had taken the precaution to send a detachment of soldiers un- 
der the command of General Wilkinson, to take a position on 
the 17th and i8th of December, on the bank of the Mississippi 
river, just above New Orleans. On the 20th of December, on 
the day appointed for the delivery of the colony to the United 
States, M. Laussat, the French Governor, accompanied by a 
numerous retinue, went to the City Hall, where he introduced 
the American troops into the Capital. M. Claiborne, the 
American Governor of Mississippi, and General Wilkinson, 
were received in the City Hall and placed on the two sides of 
the French prefect, when the Treaty of Cession, the respective 
powers of the commissioners and the certificate of the exchange 
of ratifications were read, M. Laussat pronouncing these 
words: "In conformity with the Treaty, I put the United 
States in possession of Louisiana and its dependencies. The 
citizens and inhabitants who wish to remain here, and obey the 
laws, are from this moment exonerated from the oath of fidel- 
ity to the French Republic." 

During the twenty days of French sovereignty, the French 
flag had been displayed from the City Hall, where it had been 
beheld by French citizens with a homage, patriotism and affec- 
tion that always must command the respect of every person, to 
whatsoever nation he owes allegiance. When the change of 
flags came the United States flag was raised, while at the same 
instant the French flag was lowered ; and when they met mid- 
way, both were kept stationary for a few instants, while the 
artillery and trumpets celebrated the union to emblematize the 



34 Louisiana 

harmony between the two nations as the one resigned its au- 
thority and the other assumed its authority over the Province 
of Louisiana. Next, the flag of the United States rose to its 
full height. The Americans shouted with joy; the colors of 
the French Republic were lowered and received in the arms of 
the French, who had guarded them, while their regrets were 
openly expressed ; and to render a last token of homage to their 
flag, the French sergeant-major wrapped it around his body, 
as a scarf, and ornate with its folds, traversed the principal 
streets of the city till he came to the house of the French com- 
missioner. A troop of French patriots accompanied him and 
were saluted in passing before the American lines, who pre- 
sented arms to them as a token of respect. When M. Laussat 
received the flag that had been wrapped around the body of 
the sergeant-major, the latter said to him : "It is into your 
hands that we deposit this symbol of the tie which has tran- 
siently connected us with France. We deposit it with you as 
the last proof of our affection." M. Laussat replied, "May the 
prosperity of Louisiana be eternal." 

Mr. Claiborne, the American commissioner who admin- 
istered the government, now issued a proclamation guarantee- 
ing to the inhabitants religious, civil and private rights. Dur- 
ing these ceremonials the Spanish, French and American offi- 
cials had neglected nothing to maintain harmony between the 
three nations. 

The conditions which had brought about this immense ac- 
cession to the territorial growth and wealth iand power to the 
United States were dramatic. The power of the British na- 
tion was the basic foundation for the whole. This power had 
been the means of dispossessing the French of the Island of 
Santo Domingo, which Bonaparte had intended as a base of 
operations wherewith to make invulnerable his defenses of the 
Province of Louisiana. But there was a limit to Bonaparte's 



Louisiana 35 

ambition, and it is not strange that knowing he could not re- 
tain Louisiana, he took effective measures to secure it to the 
United States, who had never been his enemy, and from whom 
he had a reasonable assurance of friendship. England had 
boasted that she had but one enemy in France, and that enemy 
was General Bonaparte, which title she always gave him, in- 
stead of His Majesty, the Emperor. 

There was a law of nature that made it inevitable that 
the entire territory intervening between the Louisiana Province 
and the Pacific coast, must ultimately fall intO' the hands of 
the possessors of Louisiana. Had the English possessed this 
province, it meant in quick succession the whole country be- 
tween the Mississippi river and the Pacific ocean. 

Though the English conquered Napoleon at last, at Wa- 
terloo, this victory was a small offset for having been deprived 
of an empire larger than the United States, and making its 
power transcendent on the continent of America. 

The friendship between the United States and England, 
commendable as it is universal, is the result of commercial af- 
finity. The friendship between the United States and the 
French, only in part from commercial afifinity, is abiding and 
permanent, because, that it was through her assistance, first, 
that we gained o\xv Independence, and next that our domain 
extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific, which must ultimately 
assure the verification of Napoleon Bonaparte's prophecy. 

Treaty Between the French Republic and the United 
States, Concerning the Cession of Louisiana, 
Signed at Paris the 30TH of April, 1803. 

The President of the United States of America, and the 
First Consul of the French Republic, in the name of the French 
people, desiring to remove all source of misunderstanding rela- 
tive to objects of discussion, mentioned in the second and fifth 
articles of the convention of the Eighth Vendemiaire, an 9 



36 Louisiana 

(30th of September, 1800), relative tO' the rights claimed by 
the United States, in virtue of the treaty concluded at Madrid 
the 27th of October, 1795, between His Catholic Majesty and 
the United States, and willing to strengthen the union and 
friendship which, at the time of the said convention, was 
happily re-established between the two nations, have respect- 
ively named their plenipotentiaries ; to wit, the President of 
the United States of America, by and with the advice and 
consent of the Senate of the said States, Robert R. Livingston, 
minister plenipotentiary of the United States, and James Mon- 
roe, minister plenipotentiary and envoy extraordinary of the 
said States, near the government of the French Republic ; and 
the First Consul, in the name of the French people, the French 
citizen Barbe Marbois, minister of the public treasury, who, 
after having respectively exchanged their full powers, have 
agreed to the following articles : 

Article I. 
Whereas, by the article the third of the treaty concluded 
at San Ildefonso, the 9th Vendemiaire, an 9 (ist October, 
1800), between the First Consul of the French Republic and 
His Catholic Majesty, it was agreed as follows : "His Catho- 
lic Majesty promises and engages, on his part, tO' retrocede 
to the French Republic, six months after the full and entire 
execution of the conditions and stipulations herein relative to 
his Royal Highness, the Duke of Parma, the Colony or 
Province of Louisiana, with the same extent that it now has in 
the hands of Spain, and that it had when France possessed it ; 
and such as it should be after the treaties subsequently entered 
into between Spain and other States." And, whereas, in pur- 
suance of the treaty, and particularly of the third article, the 
French Republic has an incontestable title to the domain, and 
to the possession of the said territory : The First Consul of 
the French Republic, desiring to give to the United States a 



Louisiana 37 

strong proof of his friendship, doth hereby cede to the said 
United States, in the name of the French RepubHc, for ever and 
in full sovereignty, the said territory, with all its rights and 
appurtenances, as fully and in the same manner as they had 
been acquired by the French Republic in virtue of the above 
mentioned treaty concluded with His Catholic Majesty. 

Article II. 

In the cession made by the preceding article are included 
the adjacent islands belonging to Louisiana, all public lots and 
squares, vacant lands, and all public buildings, fortifications, 
barracks, and other edifices which are not private property. 
The archives, papers, and documents, relative to the domain 
and sovereignty of Louisiana and its dependencies, will be left 
in the possession of the commissaries oi the United States, and 
copies will be afterwards given in due form to the magistrates 
and municipal officers of such of the said papers and docu- 
ments as may be necessary to them. 

Article III. 

The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorpo- 
rated in the Union of the United States, and admitted as soon 
as possible, according to the principles of the federal Constitu- 
tion, to the enjoyments of all the rights, advantages, and im- 
munities of citizens of the United States ; and in the meantime 
they shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of 
their liberty, property, and the religion which they profess. 

Article IV. 

There shall be sent by the Government of France a com- 
missary to Louisiana, to the end that he do every act neces- 
sary, as well tO' receive from the officers of his Cathohc 
Majesty the said country and its dependencies, in the name of 
the French Republic, if it has not been already done, as to 
transmit it in the name of the French Republic to the commis- 
sary or agent of the United States. 



38 Louisiana 

Article V. 

Immediately after the ratification of the present treaty by 

the President of the United States, and in case that of the First 

Consul shall have been previously obtained, the commissary 

of the French Republic shall remit all the military posts of 

New Orleans, and other parts of the ceded territory, to* the 

commissary or commissaries named by the President to take 

possession; the troops, whether of France or Spain, who may 

be there, shall cease to occupy any military post from the time 

of taking possession, and shall be embarked as soon as possible, 

in the course of three months after the ratification of this 

treaty. 

Article VI. 

The United States promise to execute such treaties and 
articles as may have been agreed between Spain and the tribes 
and nations of Indians, until, by mutual consent of the United 
States and the said tribes or nations, other suitable articles 
shall have been agreed upon. 

Article VII. 

As it is reciprocally advantageous to the commerce of 
France and the United States to encourage the communication 
of both nations for a limited time in the country ceded by the 
present treaty, until general arrangements relative to the com- 
merce of both nations may be agreed on, it has been agreed 
between the contracting parties, that the French ships coming 
directly from France or any of her colonies, loaded only with 
the produce or manufactures of France or her said colonies; 
and the ships of Spain coming directly from Spain or any of 
her colonies, loaded only with the produce or manufactures of 
Spain or her colonies, shall be admitted during the space of 
twelve years in the ports of New Orleans, and in all other 
legal ports of entry within the ceded territory, in the same 
manner as the ships of the United States coming directly from 



Louisiana 39 

France or Spain or any of their colonies, without being sub- 
ject tO' any other or greater duty on merchandise, or other or 
greater tonnage than those paid by the citizens of the United 
States. 

During the space of time above mentioned, no- other na- 
tion shall have a right to the same privileges in the ports of the 
ceded territory : the twelve years shall commence three months 
after the exchange of ratifications, if it shall take place in 
France, or three months after it shall have been notified at 
Paris to the French Government, if it shall take place in the 
United States: it is, however, well understood that the object 
of the above article is to favor the manufactures, commerce, 
freight, and navigation of France and of Spain, so far as re- 
lates to the importations that the French and Spanish shall 
make into the said ports of the United States, without in any 
sort affecting the regulations that the United States may make 
concerning the exportation of the produce and merchandise of 
the United States, or any right they may have to make such 

regulations. 

Article VIII. 

In future, and for ever after the expiration of the twelve 
years, the ships of France shall be treated upon the footing of 
the most favored nations in the ports above mentioned. 

Article IX. 

The particular convention signed this day by the respect- 
ive ministers, having for its object tO' provide for the pay- 
ment of debts due to the citizens of the United States by the 
French Republic, prior to the 30th of September, 1800 (8th 
Vendemiaire, an 9), is approved, and to^ have its execution in 
the same manner as if it had been inserted in the present treaty; 
and it shall be ratified in the same form, and in the same time^ 
so that the one shall not be ratified distinct from the other. 

Another particular convention, signed at the samie date 



40 Louisiana 

as the present treaty, relative to the definite rule between the 
contracting parties, is in the like manner approved, and will be 
ratified in the same form, and in the same time, and jointly. 

Article X. 

The present treaty shall be ratified in good and due form, 
and the ratifications shall be exchanged in the space of six 
months after the date of the signature by the ministers pleni- 
potentiary, or sooner if possible. 

In faith whereof, the respective plenipotentiaries have 
signed these articles in the French and English languages; 
declaring, nevertheless, that the present treaty was originally 
agreed to in the French language; and have thereunto put 
their seals. 

Done at Paris, the tenth day of Floreal, in the eleventh 

year of the French Republic, and the 30th of April, 1803. 

Robert R. Livingston. 
James Monroe. 
Barbe Marbois. 



Convention Between the United States of America 
AND THE French Republic, of the Same Date with 
THE Preceding Treaty. 

The President of the United States of America and the 
First Consul of the French Republic, in the name of the French 
people, in consequence of the Treaty of Cession of Louisiana, 
which has been signed this day, wishing to regulate definitively 
everything which has relation to the said cession, have author- 
ized to this efifect the plenipotentiaries, that is to say : the 
President of the United States has, by and with the advice and 
consent of the Senate of the said States, nominated for their 
plenipotentiaries, Robert R. Livingston, minister plenipotenti- 
ary of the United States, and James Monroe, minister pleni- 
potentiary and envoy extraordinary of the said United States, 
near the Government of the French Republic; and the First 



Louisiana 41 

Consul of the French Republic, in the name of the French 
people, has named as plenipotentiary of the said Republic, the 
French citizen, Barbe Marbois, who, in virtue of their full 
powers, which have been exchanged this day, have agreed to 
the following articles : 

Article I. 
The Government of the United States engages to pay to 
the French Government, in the manner specified in the follow- 
ing articles, the sum of sixty millions of francs, independent 
of the sum which shall be fixed by another convention for the 
payment of debts due by France to citizens of the United 

States. 

Article II. 

For the payment of sixty millions of francs, mentioned in 
the preceding article, the United States shall create a stock 
of eleven millions two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, 
bearing an interest of six per cent, per annum, payable half 
yearly in London, Amsterdam, or Paris, amounting by the 
half year to three hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hun- 
dred dollars, according to the proportions which shall be de- 
termined by the French Government, to be paid at either place , 
the principal of the said stock to be reimbursed at the treasury 
of the United States, in annual payments of not less than three 
millions of dollars each ; of which the first payment shall com- 
mence fifteen years after the date of the exchange of ratifica- 
tions; this stock shall be transferred to the Government of 
France, or to such person or persons as shall be authorized 
to receive it, in three months at most after the exchange of the 
ratifications of this treaty, and after Louisiana shall be taken 
possession of in the name of the Government of the United 
States. 

It is further agreed, that if the French Government should 
be desirous of disposing of the said stock to receive the said 



42 Louisiana 

capital in Europe, at shorter tenns, that its measures for that 
purpose shall be taken so as to favour, in the greatest degree 
possible, the credit of the United States, and to raise to the 
highest price the said stock. 

Article III. 
It is agreed that the dollar of the United States, specified 
in the present convention, shall be fixed at five francs 3333- 
loooo, or five livres eight sous tournois. The present con- 
vention shall be ratified in good and due form, and the ratifica- 
tions shall be exchanged in the space of six months, to date 
from this day, or sooner if possible. 

In faith of which the respective plenipotentiaries have 
signed the above articles both in the French and English lan- 
guages; declaring, nevertheless, that the present treaty has 
been originally agreed on and written in the French language ; 
to which they have hereunto affixed their seals. 

Done at Paris, the tenth of Floreal, eleventh year of the 
French Republic (30th April, 1803). 

Robert R. Livingston (L. S.). 

James Monroe (L. S.). 

Barb:^ Marbois (L. S.). 



Convention Between the United States of America 
AND THE French Republic, also of the Same Date 
with the Louisiana Treaty. 

The President of the United States of America and the 
First Consul of the French people, having by a treaty of this 
date terminated all difficulties relative to Louisiana, and estab- 
lished on a solid foundation the friendship which unites the 
two nations, and being desirous, in compliance with the sec- 
ond and fifth articles of the convention of the 8th Vendemiaire, 
ninth year of the French Republic (30th September, 1800), 
to secure the payment of the sum due by France to the citizens 



Louisiana 43 

of the United States, have respectively nominated as pleni- 
potentiaries, that is to say : the President of the United States 
of America, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, 
Robert R. Livingston, minister plenipotentiary and envoy ex- 
traordinary of the said States, near the Government of the 
French Republic, and the First Consul, in the name of the 
French people, the French citizen Barbe Marbois, minister 
of the public treasury; who, after having exchanged their full 
powers, have agreed to the following articles : 

Article I. 

The debts due by France to the citizens of the United 
States, contracted before the 8th Vendemiaire, ninth year of 
the French Republic (30th September, 1800), shall be paid 
according to the following regulations, with interest at six 
per cent., to commence from the period when the accounts and 
vouchers were presented to the French government. 

Article II. 

The debts provided for by the preceding article are those 
whose result is comprised in the conjectural note annexed to 
the present convention, and which, with the interest, cannot 
exceed the sum of twenty millions of francs. The claims com- 
prised in the said note, which fall within the exceptions of the 
following articles, shall not be admitted to the benefit of this 

provision. 

Article III. 

The principal and interests of the said debts shall be dis- 
charged by the United States by orders drawn by their min- 
isters plenipotentiary on their treasury; these orders shall be 
payable sixty days after the exchange of the ratifications 01 
the treaty and the conventions signed this day, and after pos- 
session shall be given of Louisiana by the commissioners of 
France to those of the United States. 



44 Louisiana 

Article IV. 

It is expressly agreed that the preceding- articles shall 
comprehend no debts but such as are due to citizens of the 
United States, who have been and are yet creditors of France 
for supplies, embargoes, and for prizes made at sea, in which 
the appeal has been properly lodged within the time men- 
tioned in the said convention of the 8th Vendemiaire, ninth 
year (30th September, 1800). 

Article V. 

The preceding articles shall apply only, first, to captures 
O'f which the council of prizes shall have ordered restitution; 
it being well understood that the claimant cannot have recourse 
to the United States otherwise than he might have had to 
the Government of the French Republic, and only in case of 
the insufficiency of the captors ; second, the debts mentioned 
in the said fifth article of the convention, contracted before 
the 8th Vendemiaire, an 9 (30th September, 1800), the pay- 
ment of which has been heretofore claimed of the actual gov- 
ernment of France, and for which the creditors have a right 
to the protection of the United States ; the said fifth article 
does net comprehend prizes whose condemnation has been or 
shall be confirmed. It is the express intention of the contract- 
ing parties not to extend the benefit of the present conven- 
tion to reclamations of American citizens who shall have estab- 
lished houses of commerce in France, England or other coun- 
tries than the United States, in partnership with foreigners, 
and who by that reason and the nature of their commerce 
ought to be regarded as domiciliated in the places where such 
houses exist. All agreements and bargains concerning mer- 
chandise which shall not be the property of American citizens 
are equally excepted from the benefit of the said convention, 
saving, however, to such persons their claims in like manner 
as if this treaty had not been made. 



Louisiana 45 

Article VI. 

And that the different questions which may arise under 
the preceding article may be fairly investigated the Ministers 
Plenipotentiary of the United States shall name three persons, 
who shall act from the present and provisionally, and who 
shall have full power tO' examine, without removing the docu- 
ments, all the accounts of the different claims already liqui- 
dated by the bureau established for this purpose by the French 
Republic; and to ascertain whether they belong to the classes 
designated by the present convention and the principles estab- 
lished in it, or if they are not in one of its exceptions, and on 
their certificate declaring that the debt is due to an American 
citizen or his representative, and that it existed before the 
8th Vendemiaire, ninth year (30th September, 1800), the 
creditor shall be entitled to an order on the treasury of the 
United States in the manner prescribed by the third article. 

Article VII. 

The same agents shall likewise have power, without re- 
moving the documents, to examine the claims which are pre- 
pared for verification and to certify those which ought to 
be admitted by uniting the necessary qualifications, and not 
being comprised in the exceptions contained in the present 
convention. 

Article VIII. _ 

The same agents shall likewise examine the claims which 
are not prepared for liquidation and certify in writing those 
which, in their judgments, ought to be admitted to liquida- 
tion. 

Article IX. 

In proportion as the debts mentioned in these articles 
shall be admitted, they shall be discharged with interest at 6 
per cent by the treasury of the United States. 



46 Louisiana 

Article X. 

And that no debt which shall not have the qualifications 
above mentioned, and that no unjust or exorbitant demand 
may be admitted, the commercial agent of the United States 
at Paris, or such other agent as the Minister Plenipotentiary 
of the United States shall think proper to nominate, shall 
assist at the operations of the bureau and co-operate in the 
examination of the claims; and if this agent shall be of opinion 
that any debt is not completely proved, or if he shall judge 
that it is not comprised in the principles of the fifth Article 
above mentioned; and if, notwithstanding his opinion, the 
bureau established by the French Government should think 
that it ought to be liquidated, he shall transmit his observa- 
tions to the board established by the United States, who, with- 
out removing the documents, shall make a complete examina- 
tion of the debt and vouchers which support it and report the 
result to the Minister of the United States. The Minister of 
the United States shall transmit his observations, in all such 
cases, to the Minister of the Treasury of the French Republic, 
on whose report the French Government shall decide definitive- 
ly in every case. 

The rejection of any claim shall have no other effect 
than to exempt the United States from the payment of it, the 
French Government reserving to itself the right to decide 
definitively on such claim so far as it concerns itself. 

Article XL 
Every necessary decision shall be made in the course of a 
year, to commence from the exchange of ratifications, and no 
reclamation shall be admitted afterwards. 

Article XII. 
In case of claims for debts contracted by the Govern- 
ment of France with citizens of the United States since the 



Louisiana 47 

8th Vendemiaire, ninth year (30th September, 1800), not be- 
ing comprised in this convention, they may be pursued, and the 
payment demanded in the same manner as if it had not been 

made. 

Article XIIL 

The present convention shall be ratified in good and due 
form, and the ratifications shall be exchanged in six months 
from the date of the signature of the Ministers Plenipotentiary, 
or sooner if possible. 

In faith of which, the respective Ministers Plenipotentiary 
have signed the above articles, both in the French and English 
languages, declaring, nevertheless, that the present treaty had 
been originally agreed on and written in the French language, 
to which they have hereunto afiixed their seals. 

Done at Paris the loth day of Floreal, eleventh year of the 
French Republic (30th April, 1803). 

Robert R. Livingston (L. S.). 
James Monroe (L. S.). 
Barb:^ Marbois (L. S.). 



APPENDIX 



GIVING A BRIEF HISTORY OF OREGON AND 

ACQUISITIONS OF TERRITORY TO 

THE UNITED STATES 



WITH A MAP 



OREGON 



American ownership of Oregon is the most important re- 
sult that came from the cession of Louisiana to the United 
States, and the history of how this result came about forms 
an interesting sequel to- the record of that cession. Three 
nations have laid claim to the Oregon country, as it was first 
called, which embraced the territory along the Pacific Coast 
from the forty-second parallel northward to the parallel of 54° 
40"; being the southern limits of the Russian possessions, 
which that power owned by virtue of priority of discovery by 
Behring, the celebrated Russian navigator, after whom Behring 
Straits were named. Spain claimed this country on the 
ground that Juan de Fuca, in 1592, discovered and entered the 
straits which bear his name, and that Bruno Heceta sailed 
along this coast in 1775. The English claims rested on the 
voyages of Meares in 1786, and later, on those of Vancouver 
in 1789, along the coasts and into the Straits of Fuca. The 
claims of the United States, which came in last, transcended 
all these in the principles of national rights, especially as to 
priority of interior exploration as against England. 

At St. Petersburg, April 5, 1824, Russia having relin- 
quished any right which might accrue to her south of 54° 40', 
the question of ownership to the coast south of that parallel 
was left open to negotiation to the other powers just named. 

After Spain, in 18 19, had sold Florida and all her claims 
on the Pacific to the United States, as told in previous pages 
of this work, then came a contest between Great Britain and 
the United States for this immense empire, slumbering in ob- 
scurity, inhabited by savage tribes of Indians, some of them 
hitherto unknown to civilization. The claims of the United 

51 



52 Oregon 

States rested, first, on the explorations of Robert Gray, who 
sailed from Boston on September 30, 1787, with two vessels, 
the "Washington" and the "Columbia," under the patronage 
of J. Barrell, S. Brown, C. Bulfinch, J. Darley, C. Hatch and 
J. M. Pintard. Their destination was the northwest coast of 
America, by doubling- Cape Horn. The object of the expedi- 
tion was to establish trade relations, which it did to the entire 
satisfaction of the proprietors; but these objects were insig- 
nificant compared to the national character destined to grow 
out of it. The expedition arrived at the mouth of the Co- 
lumbia River in 1792, up which stream Captain Gray with 
difficulty sailed over the sandbar at its mouth and made his' 
way along its meanders till the snowcapped peak of Mount 
Hood became visible. He named this river the "Columbia," 
after the vessel which he had the honor of commanding in the 
service of its proprietors; but in the sublimer service of 
America, as history shows it to have been. He returned to 
Boston by a western passage around the world. No Amei*- 
ican vessel had circumnavigated the world before, and to him 
belongs the distingiiished honor of first carrying the stars and 
stripes on such a voyage. 

Thomas Jeff'erson, when Secretary of State under Wash- 
ington, in 1792, had proposed to send an expedition up the 
Missouri for the purpose of securing the fur trade with the 
Indians ; and when he became President of the United States, 
even before Louisiana had been purchased, he took measures 
to send an exploring expedition to the Pacific Coast. For this 
purpose the services of Meriwether Lewis, a captain in the 
regular army, and aftervv^ard private secretary to President 
Jefferson, ,and Capt. AVilliam Clark, were secured by Jeffer- 
son to explore the Missouri River to its sources, thence to cross 
the divide of its watershed and find some stream that led to 
the Pacific. They had a command of forty-four men, a few 



Oregon 53 

of whom were to accompany the expedition no farther than 
the headwaters of the Missoru-i. A few days after President 
Jefferson had given Captain Lewis his instructions as com- 
mander of the expedition news of the conchision of the treaty 
for the cession of Louisiana readied the United States, and 
without further delay the expedition started. Their route 
lay up the Missouri river as far as they could go with their 
boats, thence across the divide to the headwaters of the Co- 
lumbia River with horses purchased from the Lidians. From 
the headwaters of boat navigation on the Columbia River they 
navigated this stream to its mouth, arriving at Cape Disap- 
pointment, situated on its north bank, November 15, 1805, 
where they remained till March 26, 1806. Previous to their 
departure from St. Louis, President Jefferson had given Lewis 
and Clark authority to purchase necessary supplies for the re- 
turn of the expedition, either across the country or for passage 
in vessel around Cape Horn for the whole company ; but, thanks 
to the good management of the commanders of the expedition, 
there was no necessity for using this authority, and they 
commenced their return up the Columbia River to its sources ; 
thence across the divide to the headwaters of the Missouri 
River; thence down that stream to St. Louis, arriving there 
September 23 same year, their return thus having been by the 
same route on which they had advanced into the unknown 
two years before. 

In 181 1 John Jacob Astor established a fort, which he 
named Astoria, on the south bank of the Columbia River, ten 
miles above its mouth. This fort was captured by the British 
and named Fort George during the War of 1812, but was 
restored at the treaty of Ghent, in 1814, after which it became 
a permanent point of American occupation under its original 
name, and as such an evidence of American ownership. 



54 Oregon 

Much has been said and written on international law, the 
binding force of which is ,a resort to arms if diplomacy fails ; 
there is an imwritten law of nations that priority of discovery, 
exploration and occupation is an acknowledged national title 
to lands thus discovered, explored and occupied. On this 
basis rested the title to the Pacific Coast between the parallel 
of 4-2° on the south to the parallel 54° 40' on the north. Both 
England and America based their claims on this priority, as 
above stated, controlling which was a boundary line between 
the two nations on the north, which was established in a pre- 
liminary way when Astoria was restored to the Americans by 
the treaty of Ghent. 

At this time the forty-ninth parallel was first mentioned 
between the American and British commissioners, but at the 
treaty of Utrecht, negotiated in 171 3, between Great Britain 
on one side and Spain and France on the other, the forty-ninth 
parallel was assumed to be the dividing line between the French 
Province of Louisiana and the British possessions tO' the north. 
Some historians have denied the binding force of that treaty 
in establishing the line of the forty-ninth parallel, but that 
this demarkation began here no one who studies the intricate 
meshes of this question can doubt. In the debates at the rati- 
fication in the British House of Commons on the Ashburton 
treaty mention was made of a map which had belonged to the 
late King George III, made by Mr. Faden, the King's geogra- 
pher, after the peace of 1783. This map had hung in the 
King's library during his lifetime, and subsequently in the 
foreign office; but it had disappeared about the time of the 
Ashburton treaty. On it was written, in the handwriting of 
King George III, "This is Oswald's line," referring to a red 
line on the forty-ninth parallel, immediately above these 
words. Mr. Richard Oswald was one of the British Commis- 
sioners who negotiated the provisional treaty of peace of 1782 
between England and America. In 1843 Sir Robert Peel and 



Oregon 55 

Lord Aberdeen showed this map to Edward Everett, United 
States Minister to the Court of St. James. On it was the 
red line as fixed at the treaty of Utrecht in 171 3. 

Mr. Rush and Mr. Gallatin acted on the part of the United 
States and Mr. Goulburn and Mr. Robinson on the part of 
Great Britain at the first English and American negotiations 
on the forty-ninth parallel. The American plenipotentiaries 
proposed that a line should be drawn from the northwestern 
extremity of the Lake of the Woods, thence to the forty-ninth 
parallel, which might be to the north or the south of that point, 
and that a dividing line between the two nations should be 
on this parallel to the Pacific Ocean. Subsequently, in run- 
ning a line from this point on the Lake of the Woods to the 
forty-ninth parallel, it was found that this parallel was about 
a degree to the southward ; hence that tangent point running 
into the Lake of the Woods on all accurate maps of the United 
States showing its northern boundary. This line ran sub- 
stantially along the ridge dividing the northern watershed from 
the Mississippi watershed. It was a natural boundary, never 
questioned by either nation, as far as the Rocky Mountains. 

When the issue as to the ultimate ownership of Oregon 
became a matter of discussion between Great Britain and the 
United States, certain principles in our political and financial 
statecraft hinged upon these final negotiations. 

The Hudson Bay Company had been chartered by King 
Charles II in 1669, whose limits on the south had never been 
defined; but whose ambitions in that direction were in rivalry 
not only with the American Fur Company, but with American 
settlements as they tended westw-ardly. This opulent company 
had a strong influence with the British Cabinet; on the other 
side, American emigrants to this country had an equally 
strong influence with the American Congress. Here was a 
collision of interests that must be settled by diplomacy to pre- 



56 Oregon 

vent violence between the emigrants of the two respective coun- 
tries. According to Gray's History of Oregon some emig-rants 
from America had already been killed by agents from the Hud- 
son Bay Company. Under this strain the two Governments 
concluded a treaty October 20, 1818, agreeing that emigrants 
from each country should be allowed to settle in the disputed 
territory for the space of ten years. Pending this joint occu- 
pation, the Hudson Bay Company, through their advantages 
of wealth and a large force of fur hunters, gained almost com- 
plete possession of the disputed territory to the exclusion of 
the American fur hunters and trappers. The first object at 
which they aimed was to convince the outside world, and es- 
pecially the people of the United States, that this country 
was useless for agricultural purposes, a task which continued 
to grow more and more hopeless in proportion as American 
settlers emigrated to the country. 

Mr. Rush, when Minister to England, in 1824, received a 
proposition from the British Government that the line oi sepa- 
ration between the two Governments should be on the forty- 
ninth parallel, from the Lake of the Woods westward to the 
northeasternmost branch of the Columbia; thence down that 
river to the sea, substantially the same line as had been con- 
sidered by Mr. Rush and the British Commissioners in 18 14, 
but not agreed to. In reply to this proposition the Americans 
(demanded the line of the forty-ninth parallel through to the 
Pacific Coast. Mr. Gallatin, Plenipotentiary to the British 
Court, under instructions from his Government, did not accept 
this proposition, although the British declared they would not 
settle the boundary on any other line. Under these circum- 
stances, after much diplomatic caviling on the part of the 
British, both nations, by convention, August 6, 1827, agreed 
to extend the terms of the joint occupation indefinitely, with a 
proviso that either nation should be at liberty to abrogate the 



Oregon 57 

agreement by giving one year's notice. As there was at this 
time an increasing disposition on the part of the American 
people to emigrate to Oregon for the purpose of permanent 
settlement, this temporary compromise of the issue was con- 
sidered to be prudential and wise, as the sequel proved. The 
Americans, through their Minister, Mr. Rush, had made no 
claim north of the parallel 49°, which line had already been 
conceded by the British. The Plenipotentiary from the United 
States, Mr. Gallatin, had substantially acceded to this line, 
but denied the claim of the British of the Columbia River as 
the boundary from its termination to the sea. 

And now came the real tug of war, the issue being di^aded 
in responsibility between the people and the Government on the 
American side, while on the British side the responsibility was 
shared practically between the Court of St. James and the 
Hudson Bay Company. These conditions augmented the in- 
terest felt by each nation, and from this time onward the 
Americans had the advantage, inasmuch as the strong hold- 
they had on the territorial question grew out of the desire of 
the American pioneer to advance intO' the western wilds for 
the purpose of farming, while the Hudson Bay Company's 
strongest incentive was to reap a harvest of furs, with but a 
remote prospect tending toward agricultural development. 
Political conditions, the missionary spirit in harmony with 
the pioneer spirit, had deep root in the destiny of Oregon. 
Greenhow, in his "History of Oregon," page 361, says: "In 
1835 Mr. Parker, a Presbyterian minister from Ithaca, N. Y., 
proceeded by way of the Platte and the South Pass to the mouth 
of the Columbia, and thence returned to the United States ; and 
from his reports Messrs. Spalding, Gray and Whitman were 
sent by the American Board of Foreign Missions to prosecute 
the objects of that society in the Oregon regions. Other 
missionaries, with their families and friends, soon followed 



58 Oregon 

them and formed settlements at various points, in all of which 
schools for the education of the natives were opened; and a 
printing- press was erected at Walla Walla, on which were 
struck off the first sheets ever printed west of the Upper Mis- 
souri north of Mexico. Meantime Congress continued to dis- 
cuss the Oregon question, especially as to the necessity of abro- 
gating the treaty of joint occupation. From this discussion 
those wishing- to emigrate to Oregon felt confident of the pro- 
tection of their Government; and under this assurance nearly 
i,ooo men, women and children formed a caravan, consisting 
of about 200 wagons and a large number of horses and cattle, 
at Westport, Mo., June, 1843. From this point they started 
up the Platte River, thence through the South Pass across the 
Rocky Mountains, their destination being the Willamet Valley, 
where they arrived with slight loss the following October.'' 

April 3, 1842, Lord Ashburton arrived at Washington 
as Plenipotentiary from Great Britain to settle the boundary 
line between British America and the United States. Mr. 
Webster, Secretary of State, acted in behalf of the United 
States on this question. Although it was generally expected 
by the people of the United States that they were to define the 
boundary westward to the Pacific, they did nothing more 
than to establish a boundary between the two countries, start- 
ing from where the forty-ninth parallel intersected the Lake 
of the Woods, thence southeastwardly by the waters connect- 
ing this lake with Lake Superior, thence eastwardly through 
the center of the entire chain of lakes and their connections 
till the source of the St. Lawrence River was reached, thence 
down that stream to where it intersects the northern line of the 
State of New York. From this point the present northern 
boundaries of New York, Vermont and New Hampshire had 
already been established ; but the boundary between Maine and 
New Brunswick, in Canada, which had remained in doubt ever 



Oregon 59 

since the treaty of 1783, was now defined by the Ashburton- 
Webster treaty, made at Washington August 9, 1842, and rati- 
fied by Great Britain October 13, and proclaimed at Washing- 
ton by the President of the United States, November 10, same 
year. 

Congress now no longer hesitated to give the required 
year's notice of abrogation of the treaty of 1827, which was 
done April 27, 1846, as a necessary link in the chain of ne- 
gotiations. The American people were always sensitive on 
g-reat national issues. The purchase of Louisiana had whetted 
their appetite for more territory to- the West,* and it cannot be 
said that this appetite was morbid, as it had international law 
as well as justice back of it. The time had now come when 
the arts of diplomacy were exhausted. No more evidence 
could be brought to bear upon the question, and it must be 
apparent to every judicial mind that the British had none on 
which to base a claim for territory south of the forty-ninth 
parallel. Mr. Polk, then President of the United States, had 
demanded 54° 40' as the line. The EngHsh had never de- 
manded anything south of the Columbia River. Negotiations 
had progressed by piecemeal, and now seemed to culminate 
on the forty-ninth parallel. On the part of America the 
line of 54° 40' was relinquished by the advice of Mr. Benton, 
Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Webster, each of whom took strong 
ground in favor of negotiation to prevent war. Although Mr. 
Polk agreed to this concession, it was done with apparent 
reluctance. It was an abandonment of the ground on which 
the presidential canvass that had elected him had been con- 



*To show the English opinion at that time on the Oregon question, 
it is pertinent to quote from the Edinburgh Review of July, 1843, which 
says: "However the political questions between England and America as 
to" the ownership of Oregon may be decided, Oregon will never be colonized 
overland from the United States. * * * The world must assume a new 
face, before the American wagons make plain the road to the Columbia, 
as they have done to the Ohio. * *• * Whoever, therefore, is to be the 
future owner of Oregon, its people will come from Europe." 



60 Oregon 

ducted. It was a proof that partisan ties must give way to 
patriotism ; for, when we examine the evidence on both sides, 
it must be confessed that the claims of America north of the 
forty-ninth parallel were not superior to those of Great Britain, 
and perhaps not equal. In the settlement of this question, 
England having yielded up her claim of the Columbia River, 
the issue between the two nations had been honorably negoti- 
ated to the satisfaction of the representative men of each nation. 
The final treaty was executed at Washington, June 15, 1846. 
No former treaty between the United States and any foreign 
power had ever been negotiated under such a crucial test as to 
international rights as this, and none since the days of the 
American Revolution, in which the people had taken so much 
interest. 

James Buchanan acted on the part of the United States 
and Richard Pakenham on the part of England. It was rati- 
fied at London, July 17, 1846, and officially proclaimed at 
Washington, August 5, 1846. 

THE TREATY. 

"The United States of America and Her Majesty the 
Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 
deeming it to be desirable for the future welfare of both coun- 
tries, that the state of doubt and uncertainty which has hither- 
to prevailed respecting the sovereignty and government of the 
territory on the northwest coast O'f America lying westward of 
the Rocky or Stony Mountains, should be finally terminated 
by an amicable compromise of the rights mutually asserted by 
the two parties over said territory, have respectively named 
plenipotentiaries to treat and agree concerning the terms of 
such settlement; that is to say, the President of the United 
States of America has, on his part, furnished with full powers 
James Buchanan, Secretary of State of the United States, and 



Oregon 61 

Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Brit- 
ain and Ireland has, on her part, appointed Right Honorable 
Richard Pakenham, a member of Her Majesty's most honor- 
able Privy Council, and Her Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary 
and Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States, who' after 
having communicated to each other their respective full powers, 
framed in good and due form, have agreed upon and con- 
cluded the following articles : 

Article I. 

"From the point on the forty-ninth parallel of north lati- 
tude, where the boundary laid down in existing treaties and 
conventions between Great Britain and the United States ter- 
minates, the line of boundary between the territories of Her 
Britannic Majesty and those of the United States shall be con- 
tinued westward along the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude 
to the middle of the channel which separates the continent 
from Vancouver's Island, and thence southerly through the 
middle of said channel and of Fuca Straits to the Pacific 
Ocean; provided, however, that the navigation of the said 
channel and straits south of the forty-ninth parallel of north 
latitude remain free and open to both parties. 

Article II. 

"From the point at which the forty-ninth parallel of 
north latitude shall be found to intersect the Great Northern 
branch of the Columbia River the navigation of the said 
branch shall be free and open to the Hudson's Bay Company, 
and to all British subjects trading with the same, to the point 
where the said branch meets the main stream of the Columbia, 
and thence down the said main stream to the ocean, with free 
access into and through the said river or rivers ; it being under- 
stood that all the usual portages along the line thus described 
shall in like manner be free and open. In navigating the said 
river or rivers British subjects, with their goods and produce, 



62 Oregon 

shall be treated on the same footing as citizens of the United 
States; it being, hoAvever, always understood that nothing in 
this article shall be construed as preventing, or intended to 
prevent, the Government of the United States from making 
any regulations respecting the navigation of the said river or 
rivers not inconsistent with the present treat)^ 

Article III. 

"In the future appropriations of the territory south of the 
forty-ninth parallel of north latitude, as provided in the first 
article of this treaty, the possessory rights of the Hudson's 
Bay Company, and of all British subjects who' may be already 
in the occupation of land or other property lawfully acquired 
within the said territory, shall he respected. 

Article IV. 

"The farms, lands and other property of every description 
belonging to the Puget's Sound Agricultural Co., on the north 
side of the Columbia River, shall be confirmed to the said com- 
pany. In case, however, the situation of those farms and 
lands should be considered by the United States to be of public 
and political importance, and the United States Government 
should signify a desire to obtain possession of the whole, or 
any part thereof, the property so required shall be transferred 
to the said Government at a proper valuation, to be agreed 
upon between the parties. 

Article V. 

"The present treaty shall be ratified by the President 
of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the 
Senate thereof, and by Her Britannic Majesty; and the ratifi- 
cations shall be exchanged at London at the expiration of six 
months from the date hereof, or sooner if possible. 

"In witness thereof, the respective plenipotentiaries have 
signed the same, and have affixed thereto the seals of their 
arms. 



Oregon 63 

"Done at Washington, the fifteenth day of June, in the 
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-six. 

"James Buchanan. 
"Richard Pakenham." 

The peaceful settlement of the Oregon question was a 
grand example of the candor which marked the diplomacy 
of both the nations interested from 1818 to 1846. Much 
animadversion had been ventilated through the newspapers of 
both countries ; but the spirit of justice shown by the diplomats 
of each was equal to the occasion. Had either nation been 
aware of the immense value of the country in dispute, the issue 
might have had a different termination. It was fortunate they 
were not, otherwise blood and carnage might have tarnished 
the pages of Anglo-American history for the third time. The 
conclusion of the Oregon treaty was the last link in the chain 
that had, step by step, brought under the Stars and Stripes the 
fairest portions of North America. The power of Spain had 
vanished as America had advanced westward, the reason fc» 
which was that her political tyranny, as well as religious intol- 
erance, were not suited to the wants of the pioneer spirit, so 
jealous of liberty and so able to maintain it as were the Amer- 
ican people. 

accessions of territory to the united states. 

At the Treaty of Peace that closed the American Revo- 
lution Great Britain was not without a lingering hope that 
by the subtle logic of diplomacy she could arrange terms with 
her rebellious colonies without granting them absolute inde- 
pendence; but the American Commissioners proved their abil- 
ity to cope with their English fathers without any letting 
down of their purposes. Accordingly, the first point they 
made was that they should be received as the representatives 
of a nation "de facto" ; but, said the British Commissioners, 



64 Oregon 

this is conceding the point at issue in advance. To which 
the Americans replied : We do not ask independence ; we have 
won it already. This assertion surprised the English, and 
they took time to consider it. 

After laying this issue before the throne the King, George 
III, reluctantly consented. The all-important question now 
to be considered was the boundary of the new nation; and in 
this issue the ambitious spirit of Young America was manifest 
at his birth by his determination to demand the Mississippi 
as its western limits. This was really an accession of terri- 
tory to the original thirteen colonies, inasmuch as their limits 
did not extend thus far to the West. Spain protested against 
this demand of the colonies, but England had little friendship 
for that power, and after considerable hesitation granted the 
demands of the American Commissioners, and the treaty was 
signed at Paris, September 5, 1783, by Benjamin Franklin, 
John Adams and John Jay on the part of the United States, 
and by David Hartley on the part of Great Britain. 

FLORIDA AND PART OF PACIFIC COAST CEDED TO THE UNITED 

STATES. 

By a joint resolution in Congress, January 15, 181 1, and 
by acts of the same date and of March 5 same year, passed in 
secret session, the United States claimed the right to take pos- 
session of territory in dispute with Spain as to the limits of 
Florida. This resolution was not published till 181 8, at which 
time it produced a belligerent feeling between the two coun- 
tries. The controversy was settled by the treaty of February 
22, 1 81 9, wherein Spain ceded Florida to the United States 
for the consideration of $5,000,000. By the same treaty 
she conceded to the United States any territory she might 
claim through priority of discovery or otherwise along the 
Pacific Coast north of the forty-second parallel. 



Oregon 65 

RUSSIAN CONCESSION SOUTH OF 54° 40". 

On April 5, 1824, Russia conceded to the United States 
any territorial claim she might hold south of 54° 40". The 
treaty conveyed no definite territorial title, but was given in 
a spirit of international courtesy to provide against future dis- 
putes. 

ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 

By joint resolution of Congress, March 3, 1837, the 
United States acknowledged the independence of Texas, al- 
though Texas was then at war with Mexico as a revolted 
province. December 29, 1845, this province, still at war with 
Mexico, was admitted into the Union as one of its States. 

TERRITORY PURCHASED OF MEXICO. 

War with Mexico ensued, but peace was restored between 
the two Governments by the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo, 
February 2, 1848. It stipulated that $3,000,000, cash down, 
should be paid to Mexico, and $12,000,000 more in four an- 
nual installments ; and, in addition, to assume debts due certain 
citizens of the United States to the amount of $3,500,000; 
the Mexicans, on their part, ceding to the United States all 
territory to which they had laid claim from the Gila River 
northward to the forty-second parallel, which territory em- 
braced our present States of California, Nevada, Utah, Ari- 
zona and parts of Colorado and New Mexico. The eastern 
portion of New Mexico^ not being included in the original 
claim of Texas became, by a special clause in the treaty, a 
part of the territory purchased by the United States. No in- 
demnity was given to Mexico for the entire Province of Texas. 

GADSDEN PURCHASE. 

Independent of this treaty, the Mexican Government 
ceded to the United States a tract of land south of the Gila 
River, as show|n on the map accompanying this work, called 



66 Oregon 

the Gadsden purchase of 1853, for a consideration of 
$6,000,000. 

ALASKA PURCHASED FROM RUSSIA. 

By the treaty of March 30, 1867, negotiated by William 
H. Seward, Russia, for a consideration of $7,200,000, ceded 
Alaska to the United States, including the Pribyloff Islands, 
with their valuable seal fisheries. 

HAWAII TRANSFER. 

At Honolulu, August 12, 1898, the formal transfer of 
the Hawaiian Islands was made to the United States by San- 
ford B. Dole, President of the Provisional Government of 
Hawaii. Mr. Sewell, United States Minister, accepted the 
cession of the islands in behalf of the United States with sol- 
emn formality. There are eight principal islands in the 
group; area, 6,740 square miles; 109,020 population of mixed 
races. The group is in midocean, between the western coast 
of the United States and the eastern coast of Asia, 2,089 
nautical miles from San Francisco. 

SPANISH CESSIONS TO THE UNITED STATES. 

At the treaty of peace that closed the Spanish War of 
1898, held at Paris, Spain on her part ceded to the United 
States the Island of Porto Rico in the West Indies, the Island 
of Guam of the Ladrone group in the Pacific Ocean, and the 
archipelago known as the Philippine Islands. The treaty 
was signed by the Commissioners of their respective coun- 
tries December 10, 1898, and ratified at Washington, January 
4, 1899, the United States on her part agreeing to pay to Spain 
$20,000,000 within three months after the ratification of the 
treaty. 



MERIWETHER LEWIS. 

Captain Meriwether Lewis was murdered and robbed 
while on his way to Washington, D. C, by Joshua Grinder, 
October ii, 1809, in what is now the county of Lewis, Tenn. 

It was rumored at this time that he committed suicide, 
but doubtless this originated in the east, where he was known 
to be of a hypochondriac disposition, but which affliction had 
entirely disappeared with his active, out-of-door life in the 




west. It was a theory, groundless and cruel, that even the 
perpetrators of the crime did not stay to urge in their own 
defense. In erecting the only monument* in this broad land 
that stands to the memory of the great explorer, the state of 
Tennessee recognized the value of local evidence over ground 
less theory. 

*Since the above was written news has come to the writer that the 
people of Portland, Ore., are about to erect a memorial monument to 
Lewis and Clarke, Theodore Roosevelt, president of the United States, 
assisting in laying the corner stone. 

(67) 




68 Meriwether Lewis 

The monument was built at the cost of $500, appropri- 
ated by the general assembly of Tennessee in 1848. Its base 
is of uncut sandstone, surmounted by a plinth of Tennessee 
marble, on which were cut the inscriptions. Above this rises 
the marble shaft, about twelve feet in height, roughly broken 
at the top, emblematic of the violent and untimely end of a 
glorious career. Five years before erecting the monument 
the general assembly passed an act creating the county of 
Lewis. The introductory clause of the act read as follows: 
"In honor of Captain Meriwether Lewis, who has rendered 
distinguished services to his country, and whose remains lie 
buried and neglected within its limits." The new county was 
carved out of four others cornering near the grave, in nearly a 
circle with it as a pivotal point. 

Of him Thomas Jefferson said : "His courage was un- 
daunted; his firmness and perseverance yielded tO' nothing but 
impossibilities. A rigid disciplinarian, yet tender as a father 
to those committed to his charge. Honest, disinterested, lib- 
eral, with a sound understanding and a scrupulous fidelity to 
truth." — Verne S. Pease, in The Southern Magazine, Feb- 
ruary, 18^4. 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



RuFus Blanchard 2 

Medal to Commemorate American Independence 6 

Thomas Jefferson i4 

Napoleon Bonaparte 20 

Robert R. Livingston 2^ 

James Monroe • • . 26 

Barbe Marbois • • 28 

Meriwether Lewis 5o 

William Clark 5o 

Monument to Meriwether Lewis • • . . . 67 



INDEX. 



LOUISIANA. 

American Revolution — How It was Conceived 12 

Amiens, Treaty of 13 

European Nations Involved in American Affairs 11 

France — The Extent of Her Territory in North America 9 

French and Indian War — Its Issue • • 10 

French Revolution — A¥hat It Came from. 12 

George II, King of England — His Fears 11 

Jefferson's Confidential Letter to Monroe 18 

King Rufus — London — Receives Proposition from British Government. . 29 

Livingston Happily Surprised at This Offer 24 

Livingston's Letter to Monroe 24 

Lord Hawkesbury — His Opinion of Treaty of Amiens 15 

Louisiana Explored by La Salle 9 

Louisiana Formally Transferred from Spain to France 32 

Louisiana Formally Transferred to United States. 33 

Louisiana Limited on North and West and South 13 

M. de Marbois ]\Iakes a Defined Proposition to the American Nego- 
tiators 24 

Mississippi River, Navigation of 16 

Monroe, James 17 

Monroe Arrives in France 24 

Napoleon Bonaparte • • 12 

Napoleon — His Rising Power 13 

Napoleon Bonaparte — Ready to Negotiate for Sale of Louisiana to 

United States 19 

Napoleon's Remarkable Colloquy with the English Minister at the 

Tuileries IQ 

Napoleon Offers to Sell the Whole of Louisiana to the United States. . . 22 

Oglethorpe, Governor 9 

Pathetic Scene when the United States Flag is Raised and the French 

Lowered at New Orleans 34 

Pitt, William — His Courage 11 

San Ildefonso, Treaty of 13 



INDEX — Continued. 

Spain — Extent of Her Territory in North America g 

Spain — Builds Forts East of Mississippi River i6 

Spain — Protests against the Transfer of Louisiana 30 

Spain Recants 31 

The Family Compact 12 

Toussaint L'Ouverture 15 

Treaty for the Sale of Louisiana to the United States Signed 27 

Treaty Ratified by France 29 

Treaty Ratified by the United States 30 

The Louisiana Treaty 35 

The Convention between the United States and the French Republic, 
of Same Date with the Louisiana Treaty 40 

OREGON. 

Alaska Purchased from Russia 66 

Astoria Founded , 53 

British Rival Claims to Oregon 51 

Emigration to Oregon by Caravans 58 

Florida and Part of Pacific Coast Ceded to the United States by Spain. . 64 

49th Parallel Agreed on by Both Nations 61 

Gadsden Purchase 65 

Gray, Robert ^2 

Hawaii Transfer 66 

Hudson Bay Company ^^ 

Lewis and Clarke's Exploration of Oregon 52 

Lewis and Clarke — Portraits 50 

Meriwether Lewis, Death of 67 

Oregon ^i 

Oregon — American and British Joint Occupation 56 

Oregon — Joint Occupation Discontinued 59 

President Polk Relinquished His Demand for 54° 40' 59 

Russia Concedes Territory South of 54° 40' 65 

Spanish Cessions to the United States in 1898 66 

Spanish Claims to Oregon 51 

Territory Purchased of Mexico 65 

The Oregon Treaty 60 

Utrecht, Treaty of 54 

Webster— Ashburton Treaty 58 



•4 



TERRITORIAL GROWT 



OF- the: 



niTED STATE 




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LS**"^ °^ CONGRESS 




RuFus Blawchard, 

Dear Sir: 

We have received and read your book, " The 1 q « j i — ■-■■■ "iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 

of the Northwest, with the historjr of Chicago," a^^^ J^\,V^ <*o5 7 
bearing our testimony to the zeal, industry, thorough research and faithluT 
record made by you, of the times and events covered by your volume. We 
think you are entitled to public gratitude for the ability with which you have 
collected this store of historical detail concerning the early history of the 
Northwest, especially of Illinois and Chicago, and for the entertaining 
manner in which you have presented that history for the instruction of 
present and future generations. 



J. Young Scammon, 
H. W. Blodgett, 
William Blair, 

B. W. Raymond, 

C. B. Farwell, 
Marshall Field, 
O. W. Nixon, 

L. Z. Leiter, 
John A. Jameson, 



W. F. Poole, 
J. W. Sheahan, 
Andrew Shuman, 
Zebina Eastman, 
Wilbur F. Storey, 
O. F. Fuller, 
George Schneider, 
j. s. rumsey, 
Mark Skinner. 



J. Medill, 
W. H. Wells, 
Wm. Aldrich, 
G. S. Hubbard, 
J. D. Caton, 
Perry H. Smith, 
Grant Goodrich, 
Wm. Henry Smith, 



The above is a copy of a circular presented me at the time of the 
publication of the book described. It is now to be republished with 
revisions and another volume added to it— the whole to be complete in 
twelve parts. 

R. B. 

Chicago, January, 1899. 
RuFUs Blanchard, 

£>ear Sir: 
Realizing, as we do, the importance of an authentic history of Chicago 
from cotemporary sources, to be handed down from our own times to 
futurity, we, the undersigned, hereby approve the opinions given, in the 
above circular, by the signers thereof, and we confide to you our assistance 
in continuing the work. 



^^.^^^L'i''CyU.a^^^^^ 








Via 




fUJ*fJMit. 



The above described work consists of two volumes of 672 pages each, in two styles. 
Bbst Style, Linen Paper, Deckle Edge, Gilt Top, full bound in Seal, (5-00 per Vol. 

Common Style, half bound in Seal, Red Edge 2.60 " 

RUFUS BLANCHARD, 169 Randolph Street, Chicago. 



